Logitech V400 Laser Cordless Mouse Review

Package Content
- V400 Laser Cordless mouse for notebooks
- 1 AA battery from Duracell
- 2.4GHz Micro Receiver
- Setpoint 2.42a Installation CD (Used 2.47 for review)
- Quickstart Guide

Sport Utility Styling
It's no mystery where Logitech's designers got their inspiration from. Rugged, large (compared to other notebook mice) and packed with features, the V400 shares many characteristics with an SUV, right down to the two-tone colors with a hard plastic trim. The "Freerider Orange" edition just proves my point.

Inspirations aside, the V400 is actually quite comfortable. At 4"x1-3/4" it?s small enough to fit in your pocket or laptop bag, yet large enough that the palm of your hand is properly supported. The aforementioned plastic trim extrudes just enough to help you line up your thumb in what feels to be a natural position and prevent the mouse from slipping when picked up. Grasping the mouse, I find that my fingers hang off the edges of the buttons and the heel of my hand is just off the edge of the mouse - which is all well and good so long as I remember to keep my wrist up to ease my carpal tunnel syndrome. Speaking of which, just recently I went out and bought a pair of Smart Glove wrist braces to help keep my wrist up, and while they can make grasping an ordinary mouse seem awkward, the shorter base of the V400 seems to match them perfectly.

Clicking Away
Unlike most notebook mice that feature 2 primary buttons and a scroll wheel, the V400 also throws in two additional buttons for extra programmability or plain Back and Forward browsing. Convenient as they may be, the back and forward buttons suffer from a single flaw. While they appear to be segmented, they?re actually on a misaligned rocker. Clicking the top half of the Back button will actually press both buttons at once, leading me right back to the same web page. I have to press the extreme rear of the back button in order to actually go back. Nothing major, but it throws me off every now and then.

Like the V500 solid-state mouse before it, the V400 also has horizontal scrolling in the familiar fashion of a tilt wheel. The tilt-wheel performs marvelously, much like the tilt wheel on Logitech's MX610. Scrolling provides little resistance but is stepped for accuracy, middle clicking doesn't accidentally side scroll, and horizontal scrolling works as expected. If you're not a fan of horizontal scrolling, you can always map the left and right tilting to keystrokes or other functions, but unfortunately Logitech blocked the ability to have the SetPoint drivers use Application-based profiles in the event you wanted to have the tilt wheel horizontally scroll in Explorer and Firefox and execute keystrokes in Photoshop or any other application. If there's a logical explanation for this, I'd like to hear it because I'm drawing blanks.

Mini-rant over, I am delighted to say that the V400 is Macintosh compatible, including Intel-based Macs. Every button is programmable, although there are no adjustments available for side scrolling which crawls along and it can?t be mapped to keyboard commands.

Wireless Performance
Unlike the SUVs it gets its style from, the V400 Laser Cordless mouse for notebooks is quite energy efficient. Powered by a single AA battery that can easily be replaced on the road, the V400 has an incredible battery life. I've been using it constantly for over a week now as both my desktop and notebook mouse, and the drivers still indicate the battery life as "Good". Like many other wireless mice, when it hasn't been moved for a while the mouse will enter a low-power sleep state that takes a good second to wake up from. To further increase battery life, Logitech has eliminated the possibility of the mouse accidentally turning on while in your laptop bag by having the stow-away micro-receiver double as a power switch. When it's locked into the base of the mouse, it turns off automatically.

Like the rest of Logitech's mice these days, the V400 steps away from 27MHz cordless technologies in favor of the longer distances achieved by the 2.4GHz spectrum. Despite the fact that everyone and their grandmother have 2.4GHz phones, networks, or speakers that could potentially interfere with the mouse, it held its own in my wireless-saturated apartment. While there was zero interference encountered when using it with my laptop, I did notice a few drops when the receiver was plugged into my steel-cased desktop on the floor. Plugging the receiver into the keyboard quickly solved this. The freedom offered by the V400's 2.4GHz wireless also came in handy when using the mouse as a clicker for PowerPoint presentations.

All-Terrain Tracking?
One of the most hyped features of the V400 is the Dual Laser Engine (Twin-Eye by Philips) that detects changes in the frequency of reflected light instead of taking snapshots of the surface. Supposedly this allows for better tracking on a wider range of surfaces. The chart below illustrates what I've found across 15 different surfaces.

As you can see, the V400 performed on a whole much better than its LED counterparts, although in some cases it wouldn't track where the LED mice would, and surprisingly enough the dual lasers handled terribly on a gamer's mouse pad whereas the single laser G5 and LED mice did fine. However, in some cases the dual lasers actually did come to an advantage, such as on a dirt surface or on a concrete sidewalk. Perhaps this is what Logitech was aiming for with their All-Terrain branding. Overall I'd say I'm fairly pleased with the tracking results.

Recap
The V400 Laser Cordless mouse for notebooks is quite a breakaway from traditional mini mice. A long wireless range that's perfect for presentations, above-average tracking, solid battery life and wide platform for a more comfortable grip make for a superb mouse. Mac compatibility, side scrolling, a stow-away receiver, and back and forward buttons are just icing on the cake. While I'm a bit skeptical about the dual laser's actual benefits, I highly recommend the V400 to any serious laptop junkie.

By Scott Clark, Consumer Technology Editor